FOSS (Free and Open Source Software)

for Health Care

Dr.Lasatha Ranwala (MBBS, MSc-Biomedical Informatics)

MO-Health Information

RDHS Office Colombo

Software

“Computer software is a collection of computer programs and related data that provides the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it”.

Software- Front end

Software- Back end

source code

“any collection of computer instructions written using some human readable computer language, usually as text”.

Proprietary softwareVS Open Source Software

Proprietary software

• computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder.

• The license is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution,

Open Source software

• computer software that is available in source code form.

• certain other rights Usage modification

and redistribution of open source software.

• very often developed in a public,

• collaborative manner

Proprietary softwareVS Open Source Software

• Ubuntu

• Libro Office

• Gimp Photo

• 7zip

•Windos 7•MS Office•PhotoShop•Winzip

Advantages of FOSS

• 1. Security• " What that means is that the more people who

can see and test a set of code, the more likely any flaws will be caught and fixed quickly.

• 2. Quality• n general, open source software gets closest to

what users want because those users can have a hand in making it so. It's not a matter of the vendor giving users what it thinks they want--users and developers make what they want, and they make it well

• 3. Customizability

• Along similar lines, business users can take a piece of open source software and tweak it to suit their needs. Since the code is open, it's simply a matter of modifying it to add the functionality they want. Don't try that with proprietary software!

• 4. Freedom

• vendor lock-in

• vendors are at the mercy of the vendor's vision, requirements, dictates, prices, priorities and timetable, and that limits

• 6. Interoperability

• Open source software is much better at adhering to open standards than proprietary software is.

• . Support Options

• communities surrounding each piece of software.

• there are now paid support options on most open source packages at prices that still fall far below what most proprietary vendors will charge.

• 9. Cost

• Between the purchase price of the software itself, the exorbitant cost of mandatory virus protection, support charges, ongoing upgrade expenses and the costs associated with being locked in, proprietary software takes

Software licenses

• The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users.

• GNU General Public License (GPL), which “allows free distribution under the condition that further developments and applications are put under the same licence” – thus also free

• author's protection and ours, we want to make certain that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original authors' reputations.

• General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.

• protect your rights with two steps (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.

• For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.